Welcome to the Profession

You are likely familiar with the Hippocratic Oath through which graduates from medical school promise to practice with the best of their abilities.

Many Canadians are at least passingly familiar with the Iron Ring Ceremony where unique pinky rings are granted to engineers upon completion of their formal education. As part of the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer the ring is a symbol that the graduate is obliged to act with the upmost professionalism.

If teaching is such an important vocation, why does no such rite of passage accompany graduation from a faculty of education?



What if instead of taking an oath, or participating in a ceremony, educators upon graduation had the opportunity to participate in a national symposium created just for them? Such an event would allow teachers to demonstrate their commitment to lifelong learning, and would model the reality that one's education should continue beyond the classroom.

Recognizing the need for the teaching profession to to adapt to the realities of the 21st century, imagine an event where new teachers could be taught simultaneously by the brightest minds from across a nation or around the world. Current technology would allow such an event to be carried out at relatively low cost, provided schools were interested in participating.

In order to demonstrate the potential for such rite of passage, I'd like to invite my Canadian colleagues to consider hosting such an event in the 2009-2010 school year. By teaming with other pan-Canadian groups like The Learning Partnership, a group of K-12 and university educators might motivate agents-of-change to share their messages with graduates.

At faculties of education, auditoriums could provide the venue for both 'in-person' presentations and live webcasts where passionate educators from elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions would share their stories of personal/professional growth.

Geared towards new teachers, a simul-conference could easily be scaled to provide open access beyond faculties of education. Guest speakers could be recorded to accommodate asynchronous participation by current classroom teachers while back-channel discussions could forge connections between venues.

Such an event might instill in new and experienced teachers an understanding of a number of key messages about the profession:

1] Learning is a lifelong endeavor;
2] Embrace change;
3] Reach through the walls of your classroom;
4] Know that you can be an agent of change.

The scale upon which change is needed in education, is monumental. Why not introduce to the profession a rite of passage that addresses this need for change; and why not do so on a large scale? Such an event has the potential to inspire novice and experienced educators alike, to model lifelong learning. There are few more important characteristics to nurture in classroom teachers.

Photo Credit" M00by; Marie-Chantale Turgeon

CCK08: In Need of a New Operating System

Accelerating change has never been adopted or accepted in classrooms around the world, even though most educators have come to accept change in their daily lives. Instead, as an organization, formal education has acted like a brake, forestalling significant change be it in the tools we use to teach and learn, or the theories we adopt in developing new teaching strategies.

In my second year of teaching, I was able to purchase my first home computer… an AT machine with a 386 microprocessor and the wonders of an EGA monitor (16 colours!). This machine was capable of doing many tasks, but it would be incapable of doing many of those now handled with ease by modern personal computers or mobile devices.

The students entering classrooms during those early years of personal computing, were very different than those of the present day. Not only were their expectations of learning different, but their brains were wired for attention to the static reading and writing tasks presented to them. Handheld game machines, cell phones and other technologies, had yet to impact the lives of young people, let alone rewire their brains.

Today, the world is a very different place, and though the machines we use in our daily lives have changed significantly, the strategies we employ to teach present day students fail to address the reality that the world we share with our students is very different from the one that existed less than a generation ago.

Can you imagine a computer struggling to keep up with the processing requirements of today’s applications? How can we expect a teacher's pedagogical evolution to keep pace with the connected nature of today’s learner? I propose that the solution might be found in regularly scheduled upgrades of firmware (learning theory); software (pedagogy); and hardware (tools).

Upgraded Firmware: Learning Theory
If learning is indeed evidenced by that forging of connections among neurons, people, and ideas, then classroom teachers need to do a better job of ensuring that their teaching strategies encourage and foster the creation of these connections. As new learning theories evolve, teachers need to be ready to learn and to adapt their teaching practices. Keeping current will ensure that the dust of past theories and related policies do not clog the machine.

Evolving Software: Pedagogy
In order for teaching & learning to evolve, educators must realize a sense of urgency in becoming lifelong learners. Though no one teacher can ever know it all, each of us can carve out a niche in which to focus our learning efforts. Whether our colleagues are down the hall, or a half a world away, given permission to network among peers, teachers have the responsibility to learn from and to teach one another. Though it will not be easy to upgrade, there is an ongoing need to rewrite the code of professional learning.

Modern Hardware: Tools
Even though the business world finds ways to ensure that employees are working with the best available tools, students and teachers are required to work on lean budgets that prioritize work with pencils over work with modern tools. Still, educators will need to embrace evolving tools and mobile devices if they are to deliver learning experiences that are relevant. For the benefit of students and educators alike, tools of the present should be harnessed to forge connections well beyond the classroom walls.

While the adoption of modern learning tools and connective technologies will require the support of administrators, and technology leaders, the classroom teacher will always be the most important peripheral device in the system.

Convincing current and future educators of the need for continual upgrades, will be no easy task. In my next post, I will propose a significant learning event that just might lead a generation of teacher-learners, to realize their potential as agents of change.


Photo Credit: All images are licensed for use by Jon A. Ross

CCK08: Six down; Six to go

This fall at school has been a blur both as a teacher and as a student. At reaching the mid-point in the CCK08 course, I'd like to share a number of observations, each of which might have become a blog post would time have been available.


1] Where is everyone? The number of 'active' course participants has settled to the point where receiving Moodle updates via email is a reasonable expectation. Beyond RSS feeds, I'm left wondering whether or not there is a mechanism to track continued involvement; and whether or not an exit survey would provide insight as to where/why so many have disappeared...

2] Just another online course? It's only in recent weeks when the 'noise' of the Moodle discussions has calmed down to the point that I'm willing to notice that learners are connecting their ideas to one another. Even though the 'Moodlers' are finally connecting, responses are still infrequently attached to the range of blog posts in the connect-osphere. Based on my own online teaching/learning experience, the CCK08 course is more and more feeling like a traditional online course.

3] Past Connectivist Life on the Back Burner! In order to keep up with selected readings, the Daily, and posts from my peers, I've lost touch with other aggregated feeds. (i.e., I haven't been reading many posts from outside of the course).

4] The Fourth 'R'! It took a while, but frequent posters finally seem to be building relationships and networks. In my own experience, I've found this feeling of 'knowing your classmates' to be a critical component in building an online community. While the random (chaotic?) grouping of participants has allowed for individual exploration, intentional grouping might have led more learners to engage more deeply. Early on, it was challenging to build relationships with so many disparate participants, and though the number of voices has dwindled recently, I believe this has actually benefitted those who continue to read/think/respond.

5] Differentiation... Not so much. Although classroom teachers have in recent years, embraced this concept to varying degrees, the assignments in this course have for the most part resulted in traditional responses (e.g., reflections; links to personal/professional practice). While the freedom to pursue areas of personal interest has been announced, 'similar-ation' has trumped 'differentiation'. Only the metaphors and blog titles seem to be unique.

6] A Daily Lifeline! With a real job, and a real family life, it's been challenging to reconcile the many CCK08 channels. The 'Daily' digest has let me keep in touch even on days when I couldn't read, listen to, or think about course content. I consider this document to be the glue that has been holding this course together.

7] Looking to Forge Links... I signed up for this course, in large part to experience connectivist learning first hand, but I've found time to reach out to only a limited number of colleagues. I think that making a more concerted effort to post to the Moodle would be a logical next step.

8] Synchronicity Works! With the participation of guest panelists, these discussions have been my favourite way to connect with learners. Whether live or recorded, these interactive sessions have provided opportunities for interaction among all present learners, be they instructors or 'back-channel' participants. Often beginning with semi-traditional lectures, participant questions and comments have sometimes led these discussions to interesting territory. Gladly, the Eastern Standard Time zone allows for my occasional live participation.

9] Pre-requisite Expertise Recommended. While such courses can remain open, it wouldn't hurt to recommended specific prior experience:
* Know first-hand, how to use of read/write tools like wikis, blogs, microblogs, social bookmarks, e-conference tools...
* Model Stephen's "7 Habits of Highly Connective People" prior to course participation.

10] Engage Real World Colleagues... I would encourage attendees to augment their online activity with discussions in the real world. Although it may not be easy to find interested colleagues, or for course facilitators to track such participation, the ability to work with known peers would definitely enhance one's understanding of course content, and could lead small groups of educators to enhance their own professional learning communities.


Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

CCK08: 'Group' Semantics

Groups emphasize sameness;
Networks emphasize diversity;

Groups emphasize order and control;
Networks emphasize autonomy;

Groups emphasize borders and membership;
Networks emphasize openness;

Groups emphasize additive, cumulative knowledge;
Networks emphasize emergent knowledge.

In reaching consensus around the connectivist definitions of these terms, I find myself wishing that we had more examples of networking in nature. Even so, the animal kingdom offers us many parallel words that can be translated into characteristics of 'groups':

School (fish): Whether fish or students, most schools consist of cohorts or classes who are destined to swim in unision... rogue fish or learners are less likely to thrive or survive in such an environment.

Hive (bees): Look for evidence of abundant activity, all for a common purpose.

Herd (caribou): A group driven to act in a common way for the benefit of the entire group.

Cast (crabs): When a collective takes on a large production, the organized group can achieve maximal benefits by having individual members specialize in the completion of distinct tasks.

Team (cattle): A group that works collaboratively to achieve a common goal will sometimes have members take on common roles, but might also assign distinct responsibilities based on individual expertise.

Gang (elk): Coming together intermittently, this is a disorganized group that acts reactively without need for a pre-determined purpose.

Pack (rats): Rather than acting constructively, this group attempts to 'bring down' others, rather than to contribute for the benefit of the group.

Mob (kangaroos): At times, a large group that is not formally organized, will coalesce in response to a specific catalyst.

Flock (gulls): Just as the movement in the stars/seasons caused a group of birds to migrate together, so too are distributed members of a group sometimes influenced by memes.

Huddle (penguins): This group would rather find answers from its own members rather than seek assistance or expertise from the outside.

Posse (turkeys): A group whose members have forged lasting connections over a period of time, gathers on an ad hoc basis as needs arise. Such groups are able to respond more quickly than many other groups, thanks in part to pre-existing familiarity among members.

Crowd (porpoises): A group that finds itself wanting to act after participating in a common experience such as a symposium, workshop, or presentation.

Pod (seals): Although the benefits to all members of the group are very similar, membership in a pod might be seen as more flexible, allowing an individual to be a member of more than one group.

Although I've discovered many examples of groups harnessing sameness and order to achieve collective benefits, similar parallels to the openness and autonomy of a network are more challenging to isolate. Maybe 'networking' is new to the animal kingdom; or perhaps such behaviors are learned and are indicative of higher level thinking?

I like to think that my online persona "The Clever Sheep" is an apt metaphor for the networked learner. I prefer to follow my own path, while leading others in new directions; to harness the expertise of my online peers, while contributing to the professional learning of like-minded colleagues.



Photo Credit: Yeimaya

CCK08: A Unifying Theory of Learning

Writing is such a ‘School 1.0’ tool, yet as a vehicle for communicating information from one person to another, it continues to stand the test of time. In providing evidence of my understanding of connectivism, these characters on the page are as much reflective of the idea of connectivism, as they are a coalescent artifact that demonstrates my current understanding.

In order for my thoughts to hit this hypertext page, a vast amount of information has had to move between and within a great number of distinct networks. Documents shared within the course have been in audio, text and video formats. Those bits have been transferred around the world by hyperlinks where they’ve been taken up by course participants. Learners have then attempted to process the connections among these ideas and to reflect their individual understandings back to the others, and in so doing have led others to incorporate this new information into their own processes of understanding. And now, we’re attempting to pause in summarizing what we’ve observed from all of these connectivist transfers. In a very real way, all of these transfers of information are changing the way in which each of us perceives the content of this course. Extrapolating, one can conclude that such interactions have a significant impact upon the ways all types of learners see the world.

As important as the interactions are, the networking within the course has not been always been natural; it has often been a forced relationship. Connecting to the ideas of others, has been an expectation that has led many to seek personal links that they might not otherwise make. Forging networks with people whose only obvious similarities are the inclination to participate in this course; and doing so in what is for some a foreign learning environment, has at times created a ‘disconnect’ from the connectivist potential of this course. In the struggle to make meaning from all that has been shared, many have failed to recognize the importance of those classmate connections.

Nonetheless, a far greater disconnect exists within the school system today. With so many resources in education, set in place measure the learning done by students, isn’t it about time that we reach some consensus on the question “What does it mean, to learn?”?

With so many theories struggling to hold the attention of classroom teachers, I see connectivism as a unifying lens through which to observe the process of learning. Rather than being a new theory or previously unknown phenomenon, connectivism identifies the mechanism by which information moves within any learning system. Whether students are learning from methods and strategies whose roots are in constructivism, or collaborative learning, or project-based learning, or from models of inquiry, said learning is amplified through the network channels harnessed by teacher and student alike. Whether using evolving technologies to enhance and expand networks, or relying on past practices that engage students in individual or group learning, connectivism can be used to explain how ideas and skills are shared among participants.

With most attempts to measure learning, relying on a limited selection of performances, usually by the individual, and usually in writing, the revised recognition of learning as the movement of ideas among nodes in networks, provides opportunities for competing learning strategies, to find common ground in the use of a wider variety of learning exhibitions. As a connector itself, the theory of connectivism can offer support to other theories that ask learners and teachers to engage rich performances to demonstrate their understanding.

Although I’m not convinced that connectivism helps to explain the generation of spontaneous ideas, I hold out hope that creativity can also be addressed within learning networks. As much as I find myself re-considering the words I’ve used to show my current understanding of what connectivism is, I suspect that this traditional authoring task is very familiar and comfortable territory for course participants. In a world where relatively few teachers provide students open creative opportunities to show what they know, I find myself looking forward to the more open culminating task for the CCK08 course.


Photo Credit: Felipe Morin, and Jonathan Jones

Note: In lieu of referencing course readings (and the writing of my peers), I decided to draw inspiration from the 'biggest idea' and to use this task as a forum to summarize my current thinking.

CCK08 Concept Maps

The above map is my attempt to show how information travels in connections beginning with the wiring in the brain; moving to wiring in machines and the Internet; and returning to the brains of course participants.

The more I try to create a concept map around my current understanding of Connectivism, the more I am coming to realize:

1] Thinking in words graphically represented, forces you to see connections you would not otherwise see;

2] Three dimensional models of connectivism would be even richer... but working in 2 dimensions is challenging enough;

3] The more I try to show relationships among ideas, the more I know I don't know so much! This is a challenging task;

4] That concept maps can show relationships more succinctly than words, but the cost in time can be significantly greater on the part of the creator;

5] Ideas with images provide greater insight than do words and arrows among boxes and hexagons;

6] I need to re-prioritize the reading of Dan Roam's Back of the Napkin.

For fun, here is an earlier concept map that I created with Smart Ideas to arrange broad concepts, tools and activities we've been using to explore connectivism. The end result is not nearly as chaotic as I'd originally envisioned.

CCK08: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Boltzmann, Witchenstien, Polanyi... Oh My!

During my noon hour today, I had the opportunity to join 40 CCK08 participants in what turned out to be an audio tutorial on "Rethinking epistemology: Connective knowledge". Although complex language was used to explain competing views , I found a path to follow - call it a yellow brick road of sorts.

While what is 'true' continues to move around in my mind, one pathway is being reinforced: the idea that learning has to be connected to an individual's experience, in order to gain traction.

One might think that the disagreements in our individual responses to the theory of connectivism might be due to the fact we've read different things, or that we've read things differently; but I now suspect that our diverse understandings are directly the result of our varied 'prior experiences'. After all, we have to 'connect' these new ideas, to existing understandings.

Stephen Downes brought this home for me when he broke down what at first seemed to be a straightforward question: "What is the capital of France?".

The number of connections necessary to make meaning of this question, gave me great pause. In order to respond with understanding, concepts of physical geography, cartography, politics, civics and more, would have to be considered. The thought struck me that the individuals in any classroom, are experiencing unique learning experiences, no matter the strategies being employed. Indeed, it may well be impossible for everyone in a room to make identical connections

The road became an even brighter shade of yellow with Dave Cormier's clarification of Rhizomatic Education. Hearing that "Learners need for the curriculum to arise from the group, in order to develop literacies and to make their own knowledge, and adapt to the world as it will be." My neurons made the 'connection' to the Reggio Emilia educational approach (which I first read about in Howard Gardner's "Frames of Mind"). It was the first time since the course began, that I was able to connect a concept from this course, to a concrete classroom application!

Just as the children in Reggio Emilia classes must have opportunities to explore relationships with fellow students and with a choice of materials, so too must participants in this course be provided with the freedom to explore areas of personal interest, and to make connections with fellow course participants.

Whether the 'connections' we're making are leading us to Oz or to Paris, at least we're having a say in which paths to take, and with which colleagues to link arms and ideas.


Photo Credit: Valerie

Getting Beyond Parallel Processing

The dinner bell rang; Everyone came; Most sat silently through the appetizer...


The richness of the CCK08 course is not in the content, but in the interactions of the participants. Unfortunately, the conversation is not so likely to come to you, if you don't take the leap to attach your ideas to those of the others in the course.

Instead of working in parallel with the others in this course who are processing the rich information in the presentations and links shared by Stephen and George, I think more can be accomplished if we reflect, compare, contrast and build on the ideas of others.

As the main course of this rich meal comes to the table, I'll be making the effort to add my ideas to those of others in this course, maybe you'll do the same? Connectivism isn't found in the facts we process, but in the connections we make!

FYI, Today's Teacher 2.0 Podcast touches on this idea of parallel processing in the classroom.


Photo Credit: Groovnik

Networks Inside and Out

In our introduction to Connectivism, I smiled at finding direct parallels between the way information percolates through a human network; and the way it is thought to leap microscopic chasms in the human brain.

Networks on the Inside

I love John Medina's descriptive metaphor for physical learning in the brain:

Beginning with the realization that most cells look like fried eggs, Medina suggests how to turn it into a nerve cell, consisting of the cell body and dendrites: "Take that fried egg and smash it with your foot, splattering it across the floor. The resulting mess might look like a many-pointed star. Now take one tip of that star, and stretch it out. Way out. Using your thumb, now squish the farthest region of the point you just stretched. This creates a smaller version of that multipronged shape. Two smashed stars separated by a long, thin line. There's your typical nerve."

The connections between neurons in an "underwater forest" are as if the roots of trees have been jammed together... and "usually, thousands of neurons are jammed up against one another..."

After an "Fantastic Voyage" description of cell communication, Medina goes on to explain what learning might resemble: "Like snakes swaying to the rhythm of some chemical flute, some of these branches appear to be moving. Occasionally, the end of one neuron swells up, greatly increasing in diameter. The terminal ends of other neurons split down the middle like a forked tongue, creating two connections where there was only one. Electricity crackles through these moving neurons at a blinding 250 miles per hour, some quite near us, with clouds o f neurotransmitters filling the spaces between the trunks as the electric current passes by."

Networks on the Outside

With each of us playing the part of a neuron in a much larger though less interconnected network, I'm sure many see parallels with the idea of being squashed, and stretched thin; but the reality is that we too are communicating in networks without coming in physical contact with one another. Information traverses the distances between human nodes by eerily similar electronic impulses. The branches of our networks are likely as intertwined as are our neurons, with only a few degrees of separation dividing any two networked educators.

Learning networks continually experience expansion, pruning, adaptation and rewiring as less useful nodes are abandoned for the fresh ideas of new individuals who energize online discussions. The idea that nodes of influence can become energized and multiply via RSS and hyperlinking, acts as a direct parallel to actions of energized neurons who split and reach out in new directions in Medina's explanation of learning. The new connections that result, are evidence of learning, not only on the part of individual, but on the part of the network itself.

Networks on My Mind

With my current professional role in e-learning, I've experienced the reality that the human connections are in fact more valuable than any idea or resource that might be shared within a group. As connectivist ideas continue to invade my interior network, I'm finding that same bundle of neurons to be the best aid in comprehending connectivist frameworks.


References:

Medina, J. J. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, Washington: Pear Press.

Photo Credits: GustavoG; Lorelei Ranveig

Will Lurkers share their Cognitive Surplus?

With the impending launch of CCK08, I've been thinking about the 'real' participants in this massive open online course. The number of folks who have are receiving the introductory 'Daily' from Stephen Downes and George Siemens is now touted at 'just under 1900', but how many will actually participate?

In Stephen's introductory email, it is clear, that the facilitators hope to provide differentiated learning experiences: "We expect, and want, each student to have a different perspective, to have viewed different resources. That's part of the theory of Connectivism, the idea that people have unique experiences."



En masse, those with the greatest potential to impact in the course, will be lurkers. Ken Allan, distance educator from New Zealand in a web article titled "Working with Online Communities led me to this conclusion:

"One behaviour in online groups that has been extensively studied is that of the non-participating members, termed the ‘lurkers’ - Etienne Wenger[2] calls them Legitimate Peripheral Participants. Lurkers are widely known to be among the majority of defined members and they have been found to make up over 90% of most online groups. They are perhaps the most important members in view of their potential to contribute to online groups."

To consider the potential impact of lurkers, familiarize yourself with Metcalfe's Law. My interpretation is that ""The value of a network increases exponentially with the increase in the number of 'active' nodes.

As Clay Shirky might suggest: "The value in media is no longer in sources but in flows; when we collaborate in sharing our cognitive surplus, it creates value that doesn't exist when we operate in isolation.""



While interested lurkers are more than welcome to engage with the content of CCK08, I'd like to invite the 1900 who expressed an interest, to engage with the participants of the course... If you need to step in lightly, maybe you'll consider adding a comment below?


Audio: If you'd like to learn more about CCK08, listen in on a conversation I had with my brother, which he published as the 'What is Connectivism Podcast'
Image: The map image is a screen grab from the collaboratively developed Google Map of CCK08 Participants.
Video: Clay Shirkey's "Cognitive Surplus" talk was recorded at Web 2.0.

Will Different Become the Norm?

The Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Open Course is ramping up with participants planning a number of networking events including face-to-face get-togethers. In "More is different..." George Siemens anticipates how scaling up a learning event to include hundreds of participants increases the complexity of the learning environment:

1. Less control on the part of the instructor
2. More need for learners to define and forage for needed content and relationships/learning connections
3. More noise, chaos, confusion
4. Greater flow of information, leading to individuals with high “network literacy” feeling more at ease in the course.
5. Greater involvement of learners in assisting each other
6. For some learners, increased need for centralized spaces that serve as “jumping off” points.
7. Reduced sense of singular expertise (i.e. facilitators) and greater reliance on ideas and expertise shaped through collaborative/collective discourse
8. Greater segmentation - learners will find others with similar interests and they will form small sub-groups as a means to cope with complexity and to individualize their learning

Although it wasn't always appreciated by my colleagues, many of these 'different' characteristics were signs to me that learning was taking place in my own 'small scale' classroom. Scaling up, these differences are also evident in the greatest mass classroom on the planet: the World Wide Web.

In leveraging current and evolving network structures in CCK08, my hope is that the characteristics predicted by George, will be emulated in future networked learning environments, both large and small.

Photo Credit: David Reece

Walking the Talk: CCK08

For the past 7 years or so, I have been involved in teaching continuing education courses that deal with a wide variety of communications technologies. It has been my very good fortune to be involved in continual learning in the online environment. Beginning in September 2008, I will be a participant in what I suspect will be one of the most unique courses ever launched.

Courtesy of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba, George Siemens and Stephen Downes, two innovative leaders in connectivist learning, will be leading hundreds of educators in the 'open' Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course.



Admittedly, the major attraction of this course, is the range of 'connected' edu-bloggers and twitterers with whom I hope to interact in constructing knowledge in a networked learning environment. With the launch of the course Connectivism & Connective Knowledge blog, I'll be using The Clever Sheep Blog to reflect on much of the collaborative learning taking place throughout the course.

Trusting fully in the instructors, my online peers, and the evolving online learning tools we'll be leveraging, I have no doubt that we'll be pushing the boundaries of teaching and learning. If you have an interest in discovering more about connected learning by 'walking the talk', consider signing up.

A parallel 6 minute podcast on this idea is now available.
Photo Credit: Paul Watson